COURSE SPECIFICATION FORM
for new course proposals and course amendments
Department/School:
Management
Course Title:
Strategic Management Accounting
Course Code:
MN3345
Availability:
With effect from
Academic Session:
Course Value:
(UG courses = unit value,
PG courses = notional learning
hours)
2012-13
0.5 unit
Course JACS Code:
(Please contact Data
Management for advice)
Status:
(Please state which teaching
terms)
Spring Term
Pre-requisites:
MN1041, MN2041
Co-ordinator:
John Ahwere-Bafo
Course Staff:
John Awhere-Bafo
Aims:
To develop a critical understanding of accounting as it links to strategy, especially the
enabling characteristics of and limitations of accounting in strategic decision-making.
Learning Outcomes:
By the end of the course, students should be able to:
 Understand, develop and interrogate business models and operating architecture
 Evaluate capital structure and off-balance sheet financing
 Evaluate the impact of mergers and acquisitions on businesses
 Evaluate strategic control tools and techniques such as responsibility accounting and
transfer pricing
 Critically understand the relationship between product markets, internal organisation
cost structures and capital market expectations and how they impact on strategy
 Critically appreciate that accounting numbers reflect complex market, organisation
and institutional relationships.
 Systems context for financial management control strategy: dependencies and
relationships
 Revenue and internal operating architecture and management accounting in a
changing environment
 Capitalisation issues: leasing and off-balance-sheet financing
 Exploring the domain of organisational control: responsibility accounting and transfer
pricing
 How managerial incentives affect financial decisions
 Information conveyed by financial decisions: short-term versus long-term decisionmaking
 Stakeholder conflict. efficiency, effectiveness and distribution issues
 Aligning the interests of all stakeholders
 Sustaining growth: mergers and acquisitions and the logic of expansion
Course Content:
(i.e.: Core, Core PR,
Compulsory, Optional)
Core
Co-requisites:
None
Teaching & Learning
Methods:
There will normally be a one-hour lecture and a one-hour workshop each week, with the
workshops lagging one week behind the lectures. Total contact hours: 10 lectures and 9
workshops.
Details of teaching
resources on
Moodle:
All teaching materials will be available for students to download from Moodle.
Key Bibliography:
Ahwere-Bafo, J. (2011), Custom Text: Strategic Management Accounting (MN3341).
London: McGraw-Hill
References to relevant academic papers and practitioner-oriented articles will be given in
lectures.
Formative
Assessment &
Feedback:
Informal formative assessment will be provided in workshops when students discuss the
work that they have undertaken in preparation for the workshops. In addition, answers to
workshop questions will be provided for students to review. Feedback on the coursework
assignment will be formative as well as summative.
Summative
Assessment:
Coursework (100%) Written assignment(s), which may include analysis of a practical
case and/or critical discussion of topics in strategic management accounting
Deadlines: Mid-March
Version: Dec11
The information contained in this course outline is correct at the time of publication, but may be subject to change as part of the Department’s
policy of continuous improvement and development. Every effort will be made to notify you of any such changes.